Stand in the Rain
by 9r7g5h
Summary: It was the one thing she had left.


**AN:** It's been forever since I last played Tales of Symphonia (though I've been meaning to for a while now), so sorry about any mistakes. Despite them, I hope you all like still my short first stab at a ToS story! :)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Tales of Symphonia. Namco does.

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She couldn't feel the cold, though by Lloyd's reaction as he stood beside her, she knew it was. She couldn't feel the heat either, the weight of his hand on her arm as he tried to pull her inside a signal it should have been there, but that was missing as well. If she were to open her mouth and tilt her head, she would be able to feel it pass between her lips, but it would have no taste, the sharp crispness she had associated with rain for so long now long since gone.

She probably missed that the most, the taste it had left on the back of her tongue whenever she had done this at home, the taste and the cold. Funny as it was, she missed shivering, the goosing of her skin as she tried to regain some of the lost warmth. She missed it, missed it because, before, it had meant a warm bath, blankets, and good food when she returned home, a known security that would always be there.

"Collette, please, come inside," Lloyd asked one last time, his lips tinted blue as he fought to keep his teeth from chattering. For a moment she felt guilty; he was only suffering because of her, because she had decided to wander out into the wet and cold without telling anyone, forcing him to come find her. A small part of her pointed out he hadn't grabbed a coat, despite having complained the moment the rheairds touched down about how cold it was, but that part was small; how many times had she helped Dirk nurse him back to health after a winter chill brought sniffles and coughs because he had refused to dress warmly? Forcing a smile as he tugged at her arm, Collette patted his hand gently before motioning back toward the hotel they had come from, now in sight after their walk.

"I'll be inside soon," she promised, "I just want to stay out a little longer. I promise, okay?"

"This isn't good for you, you know," he replied after a moment, unwrapping his scarf to twist around her neck before shrugging off his jacket, forcing her to put it on over the thick coat she had borrowed from the inn's owner. It was just her imagination, she knew it, but, for a moment, it almost felt like she could feel his heat, the warmth that must have been in the cloth touching her when nothing else could. It faded a moment later, though, when she held out her hands for him to slip his gloves on and noticed his shivering, worse than before now that he was clad in only his dark undershirt.

"Get inside, Lloyd, or else you're going to get sick," she said quickly, taking the gloves from him before pushing him toward the door. "I'll be fine; it's you we have to worry about." The worry was nothing new; she'd spent most of her life worrying about him, but the routine of it felt nice. That, at least, hadn't changed.

"Alright, I'm going, I'm going," he finally gave in, realizing his battle to take her inside with him was lost. Running his hand through his hair, he squeezed out as much water as he could before entering, already wincing at the scolding Raine was going to give him for tracking water throughout the inn. They'd been lucky to find an innkeeper willing to take them in as it was, protectors of the Chosen or not. Water damage to his hardwood floors wasn't going to win them a friend. "Make sure you hang everything up by the fire when you come in so it'll dry, okay? Oh, and put buckets under everything, or Raine, Kratos, and the guy who runs this place will just be mad at both of us instead of just me."

"I will," Collette promised again, biting back a laugh at the sound of _Lloyd_, of all people, giving her housekeeping advice. "I will. Good night, Lloyd."

"Good night…Collette."

For a long while she stood by the door, waiting for him to return, to come back and try to convince her into joining him inside once again. Honestly, a part of her, the same part that had pointed out his lack of winter clothing, wanted him to; whether out of friendship or something more, she wanted him to come back and take her inside. The rest of her, however, was glad when, a while later, the last of the lights in the inn went dark, leaving her alone outside.

Slipping off both the clothes Lloyd had given her and the ones she had worn herself, leaving only her leggings and tank top to keep herself decent, Collette stepped farther away from the inn and opened her arms to the rain, welcoming the supposedly freezing drops as they soaked her, ignoring the promises she had just made for this one, last chance.

She couldn't feel heat, nor could she feel the cold that had sent her friend running back into the inn. If she were to open her mouth, she wouldn't taste the rain that fell around her, nor, if she closed her eyes, would she be able to dream about the falls from before her journey for the resurrection of Sylvarant. Tomorrow she would open the final seal, and lose the last of her humanity to save the people she loved.

The only thing she _could_ feel was the wetness on her skin as the raindrops fell, and even if she couldn't spend her last night as she might have wished, she at least wanted to spend it feeling something.


End file.
